17.8.12

An interview with IFC.com

Robert Pattinson stars as Eric Packer in David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis (2012)

IFC.com interviews David Cronenberg on his recent adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel, Cosmopolis:

IFC: You’ve made so many films over the years based on books, what was it about this particular story that jumped out at you?

David Cronenberg: I was immediately struck by the dialogue [in DeLillo's book]. It was familiar to me because Don’s dialogue is very distinctive. I think of him in the same terms as I think of David Mamet or Harold Pinter — that is to say, it’s the way people speak, but it’s also very stylized. That produces an interesting tension and rhythm. But those two guys are dramatists, and you hear their dialogue spoken often on stage and in movies, whereas Don is a novelist. You don’t hear his dialogue spoken ever, because he hasn’t had a movie made out of one of his books before.

IFC: Does that raise the level of difficulty in making a movie like this?

David Cronenberg: No, not at all. I’m really thinking of that in retrospect now. I wasn’t thinking so much about that at the time. What I was thinking was, I would love to hear that dialogue spoken by some really terrific actors. I think it would be really intriguing and interesting and compelling. That was the hook for me. It wasn’t the theme of the story or anything like that. I like the restriction of one street, one limo, one day, because I don’t shy away from that and rather like it, but I think it was the dialogue first and foremost that was the hook. And the dialogue in the movie is 100-percent from the book. [Read More]